Growth and Stagnation
by Mariko Azrael
Summary: After graduation, Scott and Jean grow up and apart. Scott/Jean... or is it?


Disclaimer- X-men Evolution will never, ever be mine. Its heart belongs to another.  
Notes- Basically, its just my selfish, shipper-y response to Scott and Jean finally graduating from Bayville High. And my response to what it would do to their relationship. That led to my very first het-centric fic in years. Just to warn you... this isn't a very happy Scott/Jean. I think it has something to do with my being a hardcore Scott/Kurt fangirl. =P 

The night seemed much too calm for their lives to be changing. But, in the time span of a few hours, it had. It had ended and was beginning again, heading to a direction that was neither of them was quite certain would take them. So Scott and Jean tried to pretend they weren't **that** excited, tried to keep the last few days as normal as they possibly could. But when it finally happened, they both quietly escaped to the back porch, and together they tried to figure out what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. 

Jean was the one with the brightest dreams and the highest goals, as both of them knew she would. Almost glowing with happiness, her eyes fixed on the stars, she told Scott about the things she had been too scared to tell anyone else until now. How she had wanted to be a doctor since she was five years old. How she wanted so badly to have the skill and knowledge needed to help people. How she knew it would be very hard, a mutant against the world, but she also knew she could do it, if she tried hard enough. How she had already sent applications to more colleges then she could count. 

Scott wished Jean hadn't asked him what his dreams were. When she did, he tried to tell her that he was content with the stars in the sky and Jean by his side. When she pointed out that the stars wouldn't be there forever, he admitted that he had never really thought about anything beyond the school. He had always just figured that once he had nothing left to learn, he would start teaching with Logan and Ms. Monroe. He had considered going to college, he might even actually go one day, but his place was here. 

She was angrier then he thought she would be. She treaded the boards of the porch viciously, lecturing him in a tone she usually saved for the Brotherhood. She told him that there was life beyond this. That he could do so much more then spend the rest of his days trying to pound lessons into teenagers. She kept talking until she was screaming, and she kept screaming until her face was as red as her hair. Scott hadn't said a word. 

Before she stormed back into the building, she asked Scott, "Don't you ever want anything for yourself?" 

As Scott watched her go, he wanted to tell her... so many things. He wanted to tell her that after having so many things taken away from him, he had stopped wanting things a long time ago. That he was perfectly fine with the idea of wasting any talent he had for people who had done so much for him. He wanted to tell her things that he knew could never be put into words. So many things. 

But no matter what he said, it wouldn't change anything. So he let her walk away. 

A few months later, Jean left the school to attend Harvard. Her farewell was unexpectedly subdued. The only people who went to see her off were Logan and Professor Xavier. The other students kept watching Scott when they thought he wasn't looking, as if they kept expecting him to at last show some sign of weakness now that Jean was out of his life. All of them had seemed to forgotten that Scott and Jean had barely spent any time together during her last months at the school. 

Kurt wound up being the one who spoke to him first. "Do you think you and Jean will ever get back together?" He didn't look up from his breakfast. 

Scott didn't look up from his paper. "Probably not." 

"Eh, you're too good for her." He was smiling as he spoke, but Scott couldn't help but feel like Kurt had been wanting to say that for a long time. 

The rest of Scott's morning was spent listening to Kurt cheerfully go on about his recent fight with Amanda, how being an upperclassman wasn't nearly as great as he thought it would be, and that he and Rogue were going to the movies in the afternoon and would Scott like to come along? And for a moment, Scott wondered if maybe he didn't want anything outside the school because he already had everything he wanted at the school. 

He quickly dismissed the thought, figuring Kurt was a just being a bad influence. Again. 


End file.
